Abraham Van Helsing
Abraham Van Helsing, M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc., was one of the founders of Department 19 and also the Department's first Director. He's also a Professor, a lawyer and a doctor of Dutch descent. Physical description Personality History Department 19= The Lyceum Incident Forming Blacklight Digging Up Dracula's Ashes |-| Bram Stoker's "Dracula"= In the novel, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. John Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing's friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound, and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realizes that Lucy is the victim of a vampire, and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy. According to Leonard Wolf's annotations to the novel, Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness for Holmwood. Van Helsing's wife went insane after their son's death, but as a Catholic, he refuses to divorce her ("with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife"). Adaptations of the novel have tended to play up Van Helsing's role as the vampire professional-expert, sometimes to the extent that it is depicted as his major occupation. The novel, however, gives no support for such interpretations. Dr. Seward requests Van Helsing's assistance simply because Lucy's affliction has him baffled and Van Helsing "knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world". Indeed, Van Helsing takes too much time (weeks and months) to recognise Lucy's illness, and seems to have no practical knowledge about vampires. Until her funeral, he tells no one his theory of Lucy's death. Count Dracula, having acquired ownership of England's Carfax estate through solicitor Jonathan Harker, moved to the estate and began menacing England. His victims included Lucy Westenra, who is on holiday in Whitby. The aristocratic girl has suitors such as John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and Quincey Morris, and has a best friend in Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker's fiancée. Seward, who worked as a doctor in an insane asylum — where one of the patients, the incurably mad Renfield, has a psychic connection to Dracula — contacts Van Helsing about Lucy Westenra's peculiar loss of blood. Van Helsing, recognizing the mark of the vampire, tries to save Lucy, but she dies and returns as a vampire. Eventually, Van Helsing and a heartbroken Arthur destroy the vampiric Lucy. Van Helsing and his band of vampire hunters pursue Dracula back to Transylvania. There, they chase him down the Borgo Pass and corner him. Armed with knives, Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris slit Dracula's throat and impale his heart. Dracula's body then crumbles to dust. Later, Van Helsing takes a grandfatherly role in regard to the young Quincey Harker, Jonathan and Mina's son. Relationships Henry Carpenter Appearances *''Department 19'' (flashbacks only) *''Department 19: Zero Hour'' (mentioned only) Trivia *Van Helsing was at least partially formed after the character of the same name from Bram Stoker's Dracula. *He's best known as Dracula's archenemy. *"Lux E Tenebris" was Van Helsing's favourite Latin phrase. It's also Blacklight's motto.ZH ‒ Cold War Echoes (38) References Navigation Category:Male characters Category:Department 19 members Category:Founders Category:Deceased characters Category:Department 19 characters